SUMMARY:

Ilya Gerasimov revisits Venedikt Erofeev’s iconic poem Moscow-Petushki (1969–1970) through the double lens of its aesthetic, theological, and political polemic with Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita and Julia Vaingurt’s reading of Erofeev as an embodiment of the “weakness” trope in late Soviet culture. The author argues that Erofeev rejected Bulgakov’s elitism and Faustian modernist ideal of heroic action. Erofeev’s polemic with the Faustian cult of power and the implied belief that “might is right” is highlighted by Vaingurt’s concept of “weakness.” However, the acceptance of weakness as intrinsic to human nature is only one aspect of Erofeev’s complex worldview. Gerasimov argues that key to this worldview is the understanding of an individual as endowed with multifaceted personality irreducible to any rigid set of qualities or single social identity, as exemplified by the poem’s main protagonist, Venichka. Gerasimov suggests that Erofeev created this protagonist using the trope of Ahasver – the Wandering Jew, – emphasizing his role as a timeless witness to the supreme truth rather than a Christ-like figure. His life takes the tragic turn when the open future suddenly closes, collapsing into the endless repetition of the same under a new disguise. Gerasimov defines the postmodern condition as this radical change of cultural temporality defying modernity’s futurism, evolutionism, and progressivism. Experienced time as standing still, the culture of postmodern era imagines the future as no longer offering a distinct alternative to the present. Erofeev’s poem transcends a simple dichotomy of power and weakness, instead exploring the possibility to find personal freedom and meaning of life in an era where modernist ideals have become obsolete.